Considering this episode was somewhat of a "setting the stage" episode, then, I promise you the episode recap and analysis should be comparitively brief compared to my last review of "Dead Is Dead"! So bear with me. ;)
Oh! But first, according to Michael Ausiello over at EW.com, the major-ish death to occur before the Season finale which I wrote about a few posts back was NOT Caesar. So I suppose that means there's still a major-ish death to come!...as well as the major death we were promised... Wow, that made me sound like a creep. Poor word choice on my part, I suppose...
Oh, and next episode, airing in two weeks, "The Variable," is, in fact, going to be a Faraday-centric episode (YES!!), probably regarding what he's been up to since arriving at the Dharma Initiative Barracks back in 1974; there's been a three-year lapse between then and 1977, where our Losties are at right now... I'm guessing he was working with the Dharma Initiative at the home front in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a scientist, researching the prospect of time travel but more importantly (to us, anyway) learning more about the true nature and history of the Island. We shall see, though. I can't wait.
Anyway! Here we go with the recap...
- First, let's cover what we saw of Miles' past: As a young child, Miles discovers his ability to hear the voices of dead people. Years later, he goes to see his mother, who is dying of cancer. Miles asks her about his abilities and why he is the way he is. He also inquires as to his father, something which had obviously been a hot issue between the two of them throughout his life. Miles' mother Lara tells him that his father never cared about either of them, that he kicked them out when Miles was only a baby. When Miles asks where he can find his father's body, his mother replies that its "somewhere [he] can never go."
- Some time later, Miles is approached by Naomi Dorrit, who tests Miles' ability and, once seeing it is indeed true, recruits him to go to the Island on the freighter for $1.6 million dollars. Miles agrees. Later, Miles is pseudo-kidnapped by a group of men who claim that Miles ought not get on that boat because it's been chartered by Charles Widmore. They tell him that he's on the wrong team and offer him answers to his questions if he comes with them, but Miles is only interested in pay and says if they have $3.2 million that he'll join them; they aren't interested and they dump Mile off by the road.
- Somewhere around this time, Miles was paid by a man to commune with his dead son. However, his body was cremated, and therefore Miles cannot communicate with him. But, he lies and tells the father that his son knew he loved him. Later, Miles returns and gives the man back his money, saying he hadn't, in fact, talked to his son and that if he wanted his son to know he loved him, he should have told him so while he was still alive.
- Flash back/forward or whatever to the Island in 1977: Miles is contacted by Sawyer at the sonic fence, who tells him that he has to destroy surveillance evidence of them passing through the fence, taking Ben's body to the Others. Before Miles can dispose of the tape, however, he is approached by Horace Goodspeed, who is forced to send Miles on an errand with a package to take to The Swan where he'll receive "something" in return, officially bringing him into the "circle of trust," since Sawyer is nowhere to be found, supposedly off searching in the jungle for the escaped Hostile prisoner, Sayid..
- At the construction site for The Swan, a bodybag is loaded into Miles' van, which he is ordered to take to Dr. Pierre Chang at The Orchid. On the way back at the Barracks, Hurley begins loading some meals to take to the workers at The Orchid into Miles' van who, after realizing there are no other vans, is forced to allow Hurley to accompany him to The Orchid. As chance would have it, Hurley's curiosity leads him to discover the dead body. Miles instructs Hurley that he can't tell anyone what he knows. On the way to The Orchid, Hurley learns of Miles' ability and tells Miles' that he has a similar ability in that he talks to dead people, too. Once at The Orchid, the body is unloaded, an event overseen by Pierre Chang, who is initially very perturbed at Hurley knowing about the situation. Miles and Hurley assure Dr. Chang that Hurley won't speak a word and that it was an accident, which satisfies him for the time being. It turns out he needs a ride to The Swan anyway, and so Miles is forced into an extended car ride with his father, a situation which Hurley finds very amusing and one which he doesn't shy away from bogusly poking fun at. After dropping Dr. Pierre Chang off, Miles and Hurley begin to drive back to the Barracks. Along the way, Miles finds out that Hurley has been writing a screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back, which is the next STAR WARS movie to come out in the year 1977 which they are living in. Hurley makes some connections between Miles and his father and Luke and his father Darth Vader, encouraging Miles to forgive his dad.
- Switching gears, we see Kate and Sawyer at the sonic fence after giving up Ben's body in "Whatever Happened, Happened." Kate drives back to the Barrack's infirmary, where Juliet had been treating Ben's wound. Ben's father Roger suddenly arrives and becomes (understandably) ecstatic when he realizes his son has inexplicably gone missing and storms out of the building to contact security.
- Sometime later that day, Kate goes and talks to Roger in an attempt to console him concerning his son's disappearance. Her goodwill backfires, however, when Roger becomes extremely suspicious and begins putting pieces together in his mind, determining that Kate must have had something to do with his son's sudden disappearance. Roger goes to Jack, who is busy cleaning one of the Dharma classrooms, and asks him about his fellow recruitee Kate. Jack assures Roger that she would never take his son or do anything like that and that she is his friend. Roger concedes but is obviously not satisfied with Jack's word on the matter...
- Later that night, Sawyer returns from the sonar fence, presumably after spending the day looking for the escaped prisoner, Sayid. Jack is there at the house with Juliet; he came to give them the heads up about Roger's suspicions of Kate being directly involved with his son's disappearance. Sawyer is frustrated with Kate's indiscretion and thanks Jack for giving him the heads up, sending him off. At that same moment, Phil approaches Sawyer with evidence regarding his connection to Ben's going missing: the security tape. Sawyer extracts the fact Phil hasn't gone to Horace yet and doesn't hesitate when he knocks Phil out cold.
- Back at the Barracks that same night, Miles notices Pierre Chang in his home, reading a bedtime story to his baby self and, you can tell, he considers Hurley's words from earlier that night about forgiveness. After a while, Pierre Chang steps outside and, after seeing Miles, asks him to accompany him to the dock, where a submarine of scientists from Ann Arbor has arrived. Upon arriving, Miles makes his way to the submarine and begins to help a man up and out of it. Who is that man? Daniel Faraday. "Hey, Miles. Long time no see." LOST
Story/Narrative - Pretty good stuff... I think it's relevant to take note of Miles' daddy issues, a common, recurring theme in the story of LOST. Consider (especially) Jack, as well as Kate, Charlie, Ben, and the list goes on.
Beyond that, there were any number of STAR WARS references throughout this episode. Before I begin to list some of them, I have to give credit where credit is due: Doc Jensen over at EW.com came up with the majority of these, if not all of them, but I felt they were very astute observations...
First, there's the obvious comparison which is even made by Hurley of Miles being like Luke, unable to forgive his father, Dr. Pierre Chang, just as Luke was initially unable to forgive his father, Darth Vader. However, a case can be made for Miles representing Han Solo as well. Consider: Han Solo is just in it for the money, initially, when he helps the Rebel Alliance, much like Miles who, prior to his arrival on the Island, doesn't care what side he's on but how much he's getting paid. I believe Miles has already moved past the point where he only cares about what's in it for him. What's left? Time to forgive his dad...but will he get another chance?
Another similarity: Miles and Hurley delivering a "packages" and dead bodies to bigger players in the picture is very akin to R2D2 and C3PO's task of delivering critical information to Princess Leia of the Rebel Alliance. And they play the part quite well actually, bickering all along the way and creating some truly humorous situations, much like R2D2 and C3PO do throughout their journey together.
Finally, two more references (and then I swear I'm done!): Jack firmly assuring that Kate wasn't the perpetrator of Ben's disappearance was somewhat reminiscent of Obi-Wan's reassurance in A New Hope: "These aren't the droids you're looking for." Ehh?? And even more interesting, Sawyer's sweet little setup crashing around him due to forces outside his control is very akin to Lando Calrissian's loss of control over his prime accomplishment and object of pride: Cloud-City. Nice...
Anway, "enough of this STAR WARS crap," you're probably saying... I thought it was cool how Hurley sees "The Hatch" being made, and even the numbers -- 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 -- being inscribed on the inside of "The Hatch" door. In that moment, you can tell he's contemplating the possibility of changing the future. That maybe if he can keep that Hatch from being built, the numbers will never have cursed him and been such an element of bad luck in his life. Yet again, the writers of the show are harping on this idea, this clash between theory and actually experimentation in regards to time travel. Sure, we've been told time and time again that "whatever happened, happened," and that it can't change. But I'm convinced that at some point before the end of this season, a big decision will be made in direct opposition to what the Losties' know to happen in the future, and then we'll see whether the future can change and what will happen if and when they try to do so.
...Needless to say, I can't wait for that moment. :) ...assuming that it does, in fact, actually happen...
Finally, just as the co-producers intended, this episode truly did do a wonderful job, I think -- and time will tell -- of setting the stage for the path leading up through the remainder of this season. I mean, Sawyer has actually come to the point where he's had to physically assault one of his men in order to protect their lie. Juliet practically speaks for where the show's headed, you can tell, when she looks at Kate after Roger storms out of the infirmary and delivers in her classic deadpan way, "Well...here we go." 4
LOST Theory/Mythology - First of all, we got some old, nagging, albeit small, questions answered in regards to Miles. The reason he asked for $3.2 million dollars from Benjamin Linus in Season 4 in exchange for telling his employers (his superiors on the Kahana and ultimately Charles Widmore) that Ben was dead was simply a repetition of a question he had already asked which we also saw in this episode, highlighting, then, his contentment with siding with whoever as long as he gets what's coming to him. Also, we found out that the reason Miles was chosen for the mission on the Kahana in the first place: Because of his ability to talk to dead people, the plan was Miles would communicate with the many dead individuals on the Island, people whose death was directly connected to Ben, and in so doing possibly garner some information as to Ben's whereabouts on the Island, since there mission was to apprehend him. Interesting... I was wondering how his ability factored into his being recruited onto the team...
And it would seem we were given an answer to another question, too. Miles "audition" with Naomi led him to identify this man named Felix as delivering some very important papers and photos, etc. to "a guy named Widmore," as well as a purchase order for a plane... So is this the writers' way of, in fact, confirming that Widmore is 100% responsible for the fake wreckage? You'll remember that in Season 4, Tom -- an old Other favorite, now dead -- showed Michael these exact documents, explaining to him his mission, if he would accept it. So did Tom intercept this Felix and kill him, ascertaining the tangible proof of Widmore's connection to the fake wreckage? Or had Felix stolen these documents from one of Ben's off-Island men and was he bringing it back to show to Widmore when he was stopped and killed by Tom? retrieving the evidence?
..Am I reading too much into this?...or am I right in thinking we still don't technically know for sure who was responsible for the fake plane wreckage?...
Moving on, I think it's incredibly interesting how the Dharma Initiative, it would seem, wasn't so innocent after all in their being at war with the Hostiles, the indigenous people of the Island. They were secretly building one of their "research" stations in Hostile territory! Holy cow!! I wouldn't be surprised if this sparked the large-scale conflict between the Hostiles and the Dharma Initiative leading to the Purge, and possibly even if it caused The Incident...we'll see about that, though, in the finale I'm assuming, considering its title is "The Incident."
There was yet another reference to the electromagnetic energy of the Island, and I think its sheer power too. Correct me if I'm wrong but in talking with my buddy Jake and after doing some research, fillings are, and have been for some time, composed primarily of what's called silver amalgam, a substance which has such a small magnetic value that it's simply been labeled as "nonmagnetic" by the scientific community. So then, what of the man whose filling was ripped up through his head, killing him? Is this an implication of the sheer intensity and power of this unique energy residing under the surface of the Island?...or simply a screw-up on the part of the LOST team? haha ..Perhaps I am reading entirely too much into this, but, ehh, I enjoy it. :P
We got another scene involving this apparently new player in the big picture of LOST, who must be either descendants of the OLD original inhabitants of the Island or modern-day Dharma Initiative people who have finally returned to the Island to claim what they believe is rightfully their's. Bram -- the same big guy who is now on the Island with Ilana who we saw in "Dead Is Dead" -- asked Miles if he knew "what lies in the shadow of the statue," and when Miles replied that no, he didn't, Bram responded rather queerly, "Then you're not ready to go to that Island." Hmm... Bram also promised Miles that if he came with them, he would receive something far greater than money: "But if you come with us, all those things you've spent your life trying to find out, you'll know. You'll know who you are, Miles -- why it is you have a gift, and, most of all, you'll know about your father." Miles didn't bite, but this made me think that these people must be descendants of the original inhabitants of the Island. I don't get the feeling that the Dharma Initiative has the kind of knowledge and insight to be able to promise Miles those things or that they're even considered with such matters, anyway. The Dharma Initiative was seeking to study the Island because of its obvious uniqueness, and possibly trying to manipulate and control its power for their own means; who knows. I guess we'll see... But I don't feel like Bram's conversation with Miles reflected "Dharma values," per se... Besides, if Miles really is so "special," wouldn't the Dharma Initiative have had money to recruit him? Tell me your thoughts on this...
Sticking on the theme of Miles' powers, it's interesting that Miles must be in direct contact with the body of the deceased in order to hear their last thoughts in his head. It's also important to note that Hurley's "power," while it would seem similar, is in all reality very different: By the way Hurley has described it and in seeing his conversation with dead Charlie in Season 4 off of the Island, it would seem that he actually sees and seemingly has conversation with all the dead people he talks to, unlike Miles. Is this difference important? I'm guessing so... Also, back on the subject of Miles, we know that his ability was with him since a very young age. My guess? It will somehow stem from the fact that he is living in the same direct area and time period as his baby self. Taking it a step further, I bet Miles will die in 1977 in his present, while his baby self is alive in his past, creating some sort of a weird paradox/effect-type thing to where he can access the last dying thoughts of a person. What's your theory? Why is he the way he is?
Finally, I'm guessing that Dr. Pierre Chang isn't as heartless as his wife made him out to be, in all reality, to her son. My guess is he'll find out about the Purge and send his wife away with his son, possibly at some point this season, in effect saving their lives. However, he probably won't explain himself because he won't want his wife to know of what will supposedly be his fate, but he will be fixated on staying in order to study time travel and possibly prevent the Purge from ever happening... Maybe this is also the reason why Charlotte left the Island at a young age with her mother but not her father. Not that Miles and Charlotte have the same father, but that the circumstances involving that departure were similar... 4
BAMF moments - I mean, I suppose the fact that that Alvarez guy got his filling ripped out of his tooth and it shot up through his brain was pretty bamf...but it's not like we got to see it, so.. 1
Overall Score - (4 + 4 + 1)/(3) = 3
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